Is long-wave theory useful for anticipating sustainable futures?

Africa’s Urban Future – transdisciplinary research to support incrementalism

Based on an extended interview with myself for the Sustainability Institute’s Food Revolution video series, this documentary captures my views on African urbanisation, incrementalism and the role of transdisciplinary research in supporting incrementalism.

Betrayal of the Promise: How South Africa is Being Stolen – my talk delivered last week on 27 July at University of Cape Town based on the report by the same name compiled by the State Capacity Research Group – a team of academics from different Universities that I convened to compile this report and conduct more detailed case studies. An eminent group were the panelists who responded to the talk, and the event was hosted by a co-author, Prof Haroon Bhorat.

AUDIO RECORDINGS AND PPT PRESENTATIONS

Shadow State was successfully launched in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Amazingly, the publishers had the book ready for launching the same week the Zondo Commission into State Capture began its hearings. This created the perfect media setting for the launch of the book. Below is the link to my talk at the Johannesburg launch.

Talk presented at the Grappling with the Futures conference help in Boston on 29-30 April 2018, co-hosted by Harvard and Boston University. This captures the essence of Chapter 5 of the book I am trying to write while here at Yale entitled Just Transitions in a Complex World: Reflections of an Enraged Incrementalist. In the talk I say the title is Just Transitions FOR a Complex World – but I think the latter is better.

Herewith the ppt presentation I used to illustrated only some aspects of the talk: Grappling

Talk presented on 6 April 2018 to a research group on Just Transitions hosted by North Eastern University, Boston. I was hosted for 2 days in Boston by Shalanda Baker who works with the CST team that does research on the developmental impact of renewable energy. In this talk I presented

Talked presented to an informal research group on Just Transitions convened by Northeastern University. I delivered this talk on 6th April 2018 in Boston. It is my first attempt at conveying the conceptual framework of the book I am trying to write, and reflections on the energy transition in SA.

Talked delivered at a workshop of Just Transition researchers at Northeastern University, Boston. Thanks to Shalanda Baker for arranging this. This way my first attempt to present an outline of the book I am writing to an audience outside South Africa. My book – entitled Just Transitions in a Complex World_ Reflections of an Enraged Incrementalist – will attempt to integrate various levels of analysis from the metatheoretical, to the meso-theoretical, and to the very practical and empirical. This short talks attempts to capture what I want to write about.

On 11th April 2018 I delivered the Edward P. Bass Distinguished Lecture at the famous Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. It was a public lecture for the wider Yale community and alumni. I drew on material from the Weight of Cities: Resource Requirements of Future Urbanization released at the Resilient Cities conference in Bonn on 26 April 2018. I co-led this project with Maarten Hajer and it involved an international research team to generate this report, with work done over the past 3 years.

Panel presentation at the African Centre for Cities (ACC) conference at University of Cape Town, 3 February, 2018. Other members of the panel were Aro Revi from the Indian Institute for Human Settlements and Carlos Lopez, former Secretary-General of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

Talked presented on 12 October 2017 at the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) in Cape Town, which formed part of AIDC’s Million Climate Jobs Campaign. A great group of activists who do a amazing work in communities and publish Amandla! magazine. Unfortunately, I forgot to record this talk, but I think a copy is available from AIDC. It is similar to a talk I gave there some weeks ago called Global trends, SA context – centrality of the global energy revolution.

South Africa’s Position at the next Climate Talks (COP in Paris)

9 structural changes, 6 change drivers, 5 shifts, 2 implications and a trigger: reflections on the state of global change

Event: Talk to Senior Management of Distel (but this was a more detailed version of the 5 minute talk I delivered at the launch of the SI’s Soil, Soul and Society seminar series) Organizer: Distel (wine producing company in Stellenbosch) Location: Stellenbosch, South Africa Date: 28 August 2015 Apologies for poor sound quality – this was recorded from a distance, so many sounds in the room also captured

Towards Sustainable Development in Africa: Why we need transdisciplinary research to reinvent development in a resource and carbon constrained world

Event: Invited lecture at the United Nations University, Tokyo Organiser: University of Tokyo and United Nations University Location: Tokyo Date: 26 June 2015 Powerpoint: TokyoFULLcompressed

Green Urban Infrastructures for the Twenty First Century: What Prospects for a Just Transition?

Economic Crisis, Long Waves and the Sustainability Transition: An African Perspective

Event: Talk delivered at the XII INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM: Visions of Sustainable Development: Theory and Action Organizer: University of Florida, University of Brasillia and World Academy of Art and Science Location: Gainesville, Florida Date: 20-22 May, 2015